Friday, July 27, 2012

Happy Friday! Technique Tuesday released a bunch of new stamps and journaling cards this past week, all of which are now available on the website. They'll start shipping August 7, but you can pre-order them now.

For this tag, I used one of Ali Edwards' new journaling cards. They are perfect for Project Life, of course. But also for journaling in layouts, cards, and gift tags like this one. The one I used is from the Remember Thisset. On one side, there are words by Ali, and it's blank on the other side. I stamped on the blank side using the Bright Idea set. Both the super cute retro lamp and the sentiment are from that.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Hey yo! Lisa and Kelly asked me to contribute to their latest Studio Calico class, Trendspotting, and how could I say no to them? Love those girls! Let's start with a couple sneak peeks of the layouts I created. So much fun!

This class will have exclusive downloadable files. Check them!

What else can I tell you... Oh yes. I created a few digital files for my layouts, and also just for fun. We'll be sharing those too. For today, I have an arrow file I created for the Silhouette. Here's a peek of what it looks like cut. Click here to download. (eta: Fixed the link! Thanks for the heads up!)

Are you a trendspotter? Lisa Truesdell and Kelly Noel want you to give it a try. They're here to teach you to jump on the latest trends and incorporate them into your projects without losing your own personal style. You'll learn how to use trends in varying amounts to combine what's now with what's YOU.Lisa and Kelly are joined by six contributors - all of whom have a strong personal style. Becky Novacek, Celine Navarro, Jaime Warren, Gillian Nelson, Nicole Samuels and Linda Barber will be sharing layouts and advice on how they make all the latest trends work without compromising their signature look.This is a four week class with three detailed PDF lessons each week, starting on August 6th. Each PDF will contain three layouts and a card (that's a total of 48 oh so trendy projects!), as well as tips and tricks from the teachers and contributors. In addition, Lisa and Kelly will be sharing trend-based inspiration pieces on the private message board, and you'll have access to exclusive files (a collection of shapes in .png, .abr and .studio & two printable journaling card sets). Here's a look at the trends we will be covering in class :week one : triangles, ombre and woodgrainweek two : metallics, sunburst and confettiweek three : neon, arrows and bannersweek four : typography, mist and hexagons

Today, all the contributors are doing a little blog hop with sweet sweet prizes! $5 gift certificates and spots in the class. And here's what you need to do to win the prizes. Leave me a comment here to win one of the $5 GCs to the Studio Calico store (which you can use to purchase this class.) Make sure to hit all the other blogs on this hop for more chances to win.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

And she's right. It does! I adore summer. I love having my kids around, and doing a lot of nothing together. We also take day trips to local museums, gardens, libraries. We read, craft, watch movies, and make food together. But we also love to take longer trips. One of our favorite places is Palm Springs. It's close enough so the traveling part is not overwhelming. About 2.5 hours. Traffic included. Because this is Southern California. Traffic is always included!

I started my own Project Life mid-May, and I only have two weeks done. I haven't progressed much, but I'm not really worried about it. I'll get back to it eventually. But one thing that I've really enjoyed putting together is an overview of our weekend trips. These are 8.5"x11" size inserts that'll go with the appropriate week. There's no journaling in these pages, because I'll most likely write about the trip more extensively using either the Project Life pages or on other layouts.

I use these slide pages that hold 20 photos per side. Five down, four across. I got mine here. But if you do a quick google of slide pages, you'll get a bunch of other options.

The white ink is Clearsnap Colorbox Pigment Ink in Frost White, embossed with Ranger's Super Fine Details in Clear. BTW, in case you are wondering, my favorite heat gun is this one. It gets super duper hot, and melts the powder in seconds.

I printed all the photos teeny (the slide pockets are 2"x2"), twenty to a 8.5"x11" sheet of photo paper, and then I trimmed them out (tedious!)

This is the flipside. The adorable yellow chevron paper is from Bella Blvd new line coming out this Summer CHA.

These Summer Rocks stamps are perfect for my Palm Springs photos. We left the afternoon the kids got out of school, so we mostly definitely had all those feelings of school being out, loving summer, needing relaxation!

Sorry about the weird photos. I haven't figured out how to take photos in page protectors yet. Let me know if you have any good tips!

I don't usually like glittery, gold-ish, silver-esque stuff, but I really love gold embossing powder. Weird, huh? This one is American Crafts Zing in, uh, Gold. Of course.

Please leave me a comment here for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to TechniqueTuesday.com. One person will be chosen randomly from all the comments received during the hop. So don't forget to leave comments on all the blogs!